Steve Morris was recognized as the recipient of the 2024 Community Betterment Award in August at a Founders & Funders dinner hosted by Western Kansas Community Foundation.
Established in 2021, the award celebrates community philanthropy in all its facets. It honors community members who served as a WKCF board member, donor, and ambassador, and who made a significant contribution to the community at large through their leadership, philanthropy, and service. Past winners of the award include Garden City residents, Kirk Olomon, Elizabeth Scheopner, as well as Dr. Luther and Ardis Fry.
Former Kansas Senate President Steve Morris (R-Hugoton) was born in Garden City. He is a retired Air Force Pilot and semi-retired farmer who served as Kansas Senate President from 2004-2012, and represented Southwest Kansas in the Senate for 12 years before that. Morris also represented Kansas on a national level and served as Board President for the National Conference of State Legislatures, and helped found the Kansas Values Institute and the Save Kansas Coalition. Steve and his wife, Barbara, reside in Hugoton.
According to WKCF’s board member and long-time Hugoton resident, Paula Rowden, who presented the award, “this year’s recipient has an impressive resume reflecting community involvement, leadership, advocacy and volunteer service demonstrating a true attitude of “service above self.”
Among the many accomplishments, Rowden noted Morris’s more than 150 combat missions as an US Air Force pilot during the Vietnam War, as well as his work, alongside Pat Roberts, to relocate the National Bio-Agro Defense Facility from Plum Island in upstate New York to Manhattan, KS on the campus of KSU in America’s heartland.
More recently Morris served on the board of directors for Russell Child Development Center in Garden City. Most specifically to WKCF, Steve served on the Foundation board from 2019-2021. During that time, he served as chair of the Finance Committee and helped establish the WKCF Holdings, LLC. This entity owns and operates farm ground for the Community Foundation. The LLC is overseen by a board of farm managers consisting of farmers, as well as financial and legal advisors.
Morris continues to serve on the board of a newly formed political education organization, Kansas First. Kansas First is working to foster bi-partisanship relationships amongst elected officials, while encouraging the election of both Democrats and Republicans for the Legislature who hold more moderate positions on public education, health care and the economy.
WKCF always welcomes visiting with individuals and donors wanting to learn more about community projects. To learn more about WKCF visit www.wkcf.org, or call 620-271-9484.
